On Tuesdays (and Thursdays, as a matter of fact), Isabel works until very late and Daniel is with his father for most of the afternoon. This means that, at 4.30pm, I pick Antonio and Maria up from school and we walk home together.
At about 3.30, I headed off to Galapagar to pick up some groceries. By 4-ish I was standing at the bus stop, waiting to catch it back to Colmenarejo, when the mother of one of Maria's friends saw me while driving past. She asked if I was heading to school and offered to give me a lift. I accepted.
And so I sat in the car of an almost-stranger who didn't know any English, for ten whole minutes. And we talked - about the weather, about what I was going to cook for dinner, about soccer, and about Australia. Pretty simple.
But - here's the exciting part of the story - I understood every word! And I was able to reply to everything she said, and asked!
I feel a bit like this at the moment -
I had a full, ten minute conversation with someone I didn't know. In Spanish! In a language that isn't my own!
If there was something that was going to make me realise how far my communuication skills had come, this was it. Sure, my grammar is still far from perfect and tenses still make my head spin. But I can communicate. I can talk to people!
:D
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